GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A Morley man who robbed a Cascade Township bank and spent the money on drugs was sentenced Wednesday, Dec. 18, to 37 months in federal prison.

Andrew Rex Miller, 32, was recognized in surveillance photos. He turned himself in at the urging of family.

Before that, he texted: “I (screwed) up severely … on my way to turn myself in and I’m (going to) be in prison for (at) least 5 years. I love you … always and I’m sorry.”

He admitted he robbed Independent Bank, 6750 Cascade Road SE, by handing a teller a note that read, “HAND OVER MONEY FROM BOTH TELLER DRAWER THIS IS A ROBBERY MAKE NO NOISE NO DIE PACKS OR TRACERS QUICKLY QUITELY (sic).”

He left on foot with nearly $2,400.

He texted he “didn’t have money cause I blew what I had on drugs … felt like a failure … robbed a bank I know how stupid I am and I’m sorry.”

The crime stunned his family. He said he was using crack cocaine and needed the money to buy the drug.

His attorney, Richard Stroba, said Miller has a history of physical problems, including a broken pelvis at 13 in a three-wheeler crash, which required he take prescription drugs. He also has a history of substance abuse.

“It was the need to subsidize his crack cocaine use that led to the idea of committing this robbery.”

Miller had always worked, until March, which coincided with his “downward slide” of drug abuse.

“Speaking with Andrew, one would not think that you are speaking with someone
likely to commit, let alone be capable of committing, a bank robbery,” Stroba wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

“He is calm, intelligent and polite. He has a serious demeanor, but one that also suggests the inner demon that causes him to use and abuse substances to the extent that somewhere his train of thought took him to a place where this conduct was not anathema to him. It truly makes little sense absent the hold that crack seems to take on some people.”

Miller knows the harm he caused bank workers, and is “ashamed and contrite.”

Advisory sentencing guidelines called for a minimum prison term ranging from 37 to 46 months.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Kalamazoo ordered Miller to serve three years on supervised release once his prison term ends. Miller was ordered to pay $2,082 in restitution.